MTG Salvation

Basic Info
Cube Size: 600 Cards - 8-man Sealed, 12-man EDH Draft
Breakdown: Artifact 65, Colors 78, Land 70, Multicolor 75 (7 per guild, 5 Tri Color total)
Powered: Yes
Awesome: Yes
Other Note-worthy items:
- Only two of any named planeswalker.
- Commanders for EDH Cube!
- Conspiracy for added fun!

Reserve please!!

Thanks for the help! Fixed the typos and brought the total to 600. More adjustments to come.

- Additional changes I made include removing most 1 drops from black and putting in more reanimator tools.
- I added commanders for commander draft!
- Added a picture of my storage case.

Complete changelist for RTR

Chromatic Lantern - razormane masticore - i didn't like cutting this guy either since I want more artifact creatures and he's great for control, but he's always in sideboards. i'm open to other artifact swaps


Smallpox - curse of death's hold - trying something new. curse was often left in the board, so might as well try something that people have liked here. plus i have pestilence in right now - i know it's not the same, but it's a midrange enchantment
Necropotence - yawgmoth's bargain - this switch people seemed to like in the This or That thread. coming out sooner definitely should definitely make a different
Liliana of the dark realms - liliana vess - definitely a test. dark realms affects the board, vess does not. also pushing near mono black decks. i can see vess coming back in if this doesn't pan out.
Gravecrawler - persecution - persecutionw as a sideboard card. gravecrawler is shenanigans
Pack Rat - Nekrataal - nekrataal was really replaced with boneshredder. i have shriekmaw in there also, so i thought nekrataal was the weakest of the three

cyclonic rift - misdirection - misdirection was never played. giving rift a chance
Willbender - Welkin Tern - welkin tern also got no love, so putting willbender back in (which usually got no love). really i'd like to have a couple cheap blue drops to support blue tempo, so this may be swapped around

Channel - Desert Twister - channel is a test card. some people here thought it was good in some cases. desert twister always sat in the board, so it's worth trying something new. i can see this being dropped later for some better green spell.
Bramblecrush - Krosan Grip - not quite an upgrade, but gives green more answers. the split second didn't really come up often.
Deadbridge Goliath - Masked Admirers - 5/5 is a lot bigger than a 3/2 which helps ramp. admirers is good value over a long game, but i think people have been only meh on it.
Master of the Wild Hunt - Mold Shambler - trade noncreature removal with creature removal/token production
Vorapede - Seedborn Muse - vorapede is some nice power for green. seedborn muse doesn't have the tools to be broken compared to EDH

Hellion Crucible - Spinerock Knoll - still meh, but need a red land to complete the cycle
evolving wilds - gavony township - i moved these utility lands into the multicolor section to free up more land space and as we know WG is already stacked so I couldn't find room for it. it's certainly powerful enough tho. I added 2 fetches to support crucible and LFtL and more multicolor support since I was low compared to my cube size
terramorphic expanse - kessig wolf-run - boartusk liege
city of brass - slayer's stronghold - balefire liege
gemstone mine - desolate lighthouse - geolectrode

Slayers' Stronghold - Balefire Liege - removing the liege cycle
Vraska the Unseen - Necrogenesis - another PW, tho she's just fine. necrogenesis is awesome, but I added deathrite shaman, so the effect is still there
abrupt decay - putrefy - this is still debatable, but we'll go with it for now
Deathrite Shaman - Glissa, the Traitor - glissa wasn't supported with good artifacts to sac like ratchet bomb. she's still a house in combat tho
Lotleth Troll - Creakwood Liege - removing the lieges
Sundering Growth - Glare of Subdual - another tought one. glare is really awesome, support tokens. opposition is in at least, but it's oddly in blue. i made the swap to add another artifact/enchant killer. green has elephants and saprolings, white has soliders, GW has a wurm, but maybe not enough to make populate worth it. I could see sundering growth being swapped out for gavony township....hmm.
Dryad Militant - Loam Lion - kind of disappointed to lose the 2/3. power is the same, but combat readiness is much lower. the flashback is really mimimal also. not entirely sold yet.
Armada Wurm - Wilt-Leaf Liege - this liege was actually good, supporting tokens. but the wurm should be a house
Kessig Wolf Run - Boartusk Liege - removing the lieges
Izzet Charm - Jilt - lose the 2 for 1, but gain flexibility. UR has lots of 2 for 1's already tho and jilt seemed the weakest
Desolate Lighthouse - Izzet Chronarch - i think this was better filtering is good for UR to get to that last burn spell or counter or bounce. chronarch is the only instance of spell recursion in blue tho. i'm not entirely sure.
Hypersonic Dragon - Spellbound Dragon - much debated, went with spellbound for now
Detention Sphere - Swans of Bryn Argoll - removal versus a bad UW finisher. not even playing seismic assault so..
Supreme Verdict - Momentary Blink - this was between blink and dismantling blow. i try to keep artifact/enchant hate high since there are otherwise few ways to deal with them. blink came out since i have venser already and it was generally a sideboard card.
Dreadbore - Terminate - mistyped this earlier, bit blast gives BR some more value, so i kept it, tho it's expensive. this may be changed for the sake of efficiency
Rakdos Cackler - Sarkhan the Mad - no one like sarkhan? his 2nd ability was pretty useful i thought, he's worse than the other options
Rakdos Shred-Freak - Ashenmoore Liege - straight swap
Maelstrom Wanderer - Empyrial Archangel - archangel wasn't enough for people to go three colors. I can see wanderer as an easy splash for green. it's abilities are very powerful and i think people will be willing to take the risk. I decided not having a representative of bant was ok, and once i made this decision the swap was easy
broodmate dragon - lavalanche - one was a finisher in standard, the other a limited bomb. people never played lavalanche for some reason, but broodmate I think people would get behind

pyroclasm - dead // gone - gone was particularly useful for that last guy to get past, but a lot of people like pyroclasm, so in it goes
Ash Zealot - Jaya Ballard, Task Mage - i like jaya, she does good things, but never seemed to amaze. 2 cmc hastey first strike is good
cunning sparkmage - fireslinger - i like fireslinger a lot. 2 cmc is much less than 3 cmc, tho they are usable both on turn 3 earliest. fireslinger can also attack and deal 2 dmg to a blocker. not sure about this one, but we'll test

Precinct Captain - Leonin Relic-Warder - another test. I'm not sure how good precinct captain is, but it could be good, especially with 1 anthem effect. at least it has first strike. relic-warder I swapped since he rarely drops on curve and is only a temporary answer. i recently added revoke existence so I didn't think the loss would be terrible.
angel of serenity - Akroma, Angel of Wrath- better reanimation target, affects the board better. i'm sad about this swap, but i think serenity is just a more powerful card.

Commanders
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - Glissa, the Traitor - Jarad seems more powerful since, like above, I'm not really running artifacts good for recurring
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius - Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind - playing one in the main cube, and i'm not particularly happy with having the same legendary in the pool, but the other options are poopty
Rakdos, Lord of Riots - Olivia Voldaren - olivia is in the cube already so this saves me the time to swap her out. also Olivia is a control card, and I have Kaervek who is controlling as the other BR commander already. rakdos seems good for smashing face
Hokori, Dust Drinker - Mikaeus, the Lunarch - Mikaeus is also in the cube, so no need to swap. hokori is one of those cards you want to drop exactly when you want to, so having him in the command zone is perfect. aggro card. the other W commander, Crovax, Ascendant Hero, plays control nicely.

Hey eidolon, thanks for your comments. I'm just going to edit my post with comments. On a side note, I uploaded my deck into deckstats, but i couldn't see the share/link tab for some reason. i think my work is blocking some script on the page. is there any way to search deckstats for my posted list? the deck name is simply the title of this thread.

The cut of Nekrataal seems like a huge mistake, IMO.

I also like Fireslinger more than Cunning Sparkmage, and think Leonin Relic-Warder should be in at this size.

Quote from eidolon232

Not sure what does not work for you, but the site should look like this:

Magic Deck Statistics
DeckBase.net MTG-Forum.com
English Deutsch
eidolon's cube 12 10 12
DeckStats.net is now also on Facebook!
Deck Statistics Visual Spoiler Starting Hand Probabilities Share/Export Discuss (0)

Mana Curve Card Type Distribution Mana Distribution Mana Source Distribution

↓Name ↓Type ↓Mana ↓Set ↓Price ↓Price ↓
eidolon's cube 12 10 12
White
creatures
1cc (7)
1 Elite Vanguard Creature - Human Soldier (1) M12 (T2) 0.50 € $ 0.02
....


If everything got submitted properly, there is a chance, that you can find it with the Google search after a while.

Ok, I'll check it out when I get home. Thanks!

Re Nekrataal - is three ETB terror guys necessary? I know they are good, but isn't 2 enough to get the effect? I'll take a second look.

Any suggestions on a different cut instead of relic-warder? better question is if precinct commander is worth it. Maybe it's time for academy rector to go..

i'm open to fireslinger over sparkmage too, i'd just thought i'd test it out, see people's reactions

Re Nekrataal - is three ETB terror guys necessary?

I wish I had more. I would play all three at 360, and I'd add more in if they printed them now. I play 4 creatures that kill creatures in my 500 card cube, and I want that number to be higher.

Maybe it's time for academy rector to go..

They're totally different cards, but I do like the Warder more.

wtfwlf - duly noted about nekrataal. i'll consider my options

re: warder. yes, different cards, but just looking for cuts generally. removing rector also makes the 4 cmc less stuffy

Man, you're not running Skinrender either; another black 4-drop that I consider to have "staple" status. Other than Braids, I'd cut any two of those black 4-drops to bring in Skinrender and Nekrataal.

Yeah, I haven't put skinrender in either. Like I mentioned in my outline above, I very much value diversity of effects as opposed to efficiency. So I like having ETB destroy target creature doods, but I don't want so many as to to the detriment of other less efficient but fun cards. Maybe I'll put in skinrender instead of nekrataal...

Return to Dust may just be better off in EDH, but I do like the value you can get out of it, and my group always plays it maindeck.

I've had Blinding Angel on the chopping block for a long while, but people still maindeck her and she always turns around the game. She plays her role in control and does it well with a little protection. I can see how she's one turn too slow to start working. I would consider playing moat, but it's so much less interactive.

I came to this thread, cause I wanted to look at awesome commander cube pictures. Turns out the word "pictures" in your sig and on the OP was false advertising. It was only "picture".

You should take pictures of your whole cube to show it off man.

Haha, sorry to disappoint Juju. I'm waiting for the rest of my RTR foils to arrive so I can make the swaps. I'll then start the arduous process of taking photos of my 600 cards. I've just been draggin my feet because I'm always waiting for new cards to arrive and...it's going to take me all afternoon one day. I should get on it tho - for you and to document it all for insurance purposes.

I haven't figured out how to take the pictures - 3x3 per shot? 4x4? all 70+ per color?

Quote from mook1e

Haha, sorry to disappoint Juju. I'm waiting for the rest of my RTR foils to arrive so I can make the swaps. I'll then start the arduous process of taking photos of my 600 cards. I've just been draggin my feet because I'm always waiting for new cards to arrive and...it's going to take me all afternoon one day. I should get on it tho - for you and to document it all for insurance purposes.

I haven't figured out how to take the pictures - 3x3 per shot? 4x4? all 70+ per color?

Some people have had good luck with using a flash on their camera. The pics for my normal cube were taken with a flash. The pics on my classic cube were with no flash, during the day (I think this works well for non-foil cards).

For foil cards, you can go two routes to make them look good in the pics (i.e. looking shiny and pimped):

1. Use the flash on your camera. Don't point the camera directly at the cards, but more at an angle. If you point it directly at the cards, you'll get a lot of glare.

2. Don't use a flash, but use effective lighting coming from the sides (not the top, as this reflects badly off the sleeves/foils). Some nice table lamps would be ideal for this.

If you're looking for cube pics (particularly of foils), then take a look at:

wtwlf123's cube: Not sure what techniques he uses here, but the layout is nice.

Klug's peasant cube: Taken from above, with many cards in the frame. I think he uses side lighting, rather than a flash.

My cubes: pluggin my wares.

Updated with pictures of the cube thanks to Hurricane Sandy cancelling work. I will update the pics when I get the last of the RTR cards and retake some of the fuzzy and crooked pics.

Added a link to tappedout.net for generating sample packs and drafting online!

Adding better pictures with more pimp!

Sup guys, I'm considering the following swaps to further support archetypes. Let me know what you think!!


IN - OUT

Victimize - Pestilence - More reanimation support - could be life/death Liliana of the Dark Realms - Liliana Vess - test, but i think it's an improvement Living Death - Sinkhole - sinkhole never sees MD play; Living Death is powerful build around me card & supports reanimator

Massacre Wurm - Visara the Dreadful - improvement

Inkwell Leviathan - Sea Drake - tinker & reanimator support - sea drake in theory is an awesome pick with moxes or mana rocks, but with a cube this size, i think he is just soso

Pouncing Jaguar - Bear Umbra - bear umbra never really panned out, too bad, i like umbras and this was a good one. green aggro support

Wild Dogs - Omnath, Locus of Mana - omnath, maybe just an edh card, adding green aggro support

Woodfall Primus - Avenger of Zendikar - fatty swap. zendikar would be ramped out, but usually not with tons of lands on the table with mana rocks and mana elves. Woodfall is a hefty and resilient presence with a great ETB ability

Gavony Township - Sundering Growth - adding woodfall primus lets me cut a slightly underwhelming utility spell for a utility land GW wants

Firebolt - Chandra, the Firebrand - Chandra never really panned out to be awesome and I beginning to not see a compelling reason to play her; firebolt is an awesome spell for red aggro and control, 2 for 1s are awesome even if it costs 6 mana over turns

Rolling Earthquake - Charmbreaker Devils - No one likes devils either =\ in theory, it seems like a nice repeatable card advantage source attached to a big body...after 1 turn. oh well - a good red sweeper that that hits everything

Burning of Xinye - Gratuitous Violence - i tried to give red a unique enchantment and i thought violence would do it, but no one wanted to go that way. more support for wildfire

Elite Vanguard - Blinding Angel - I like blinding angel, she's been a solid control finisher, but she's the least exciting of the white 5 drops. adding another 2 power 1 drop

Wall of Omens - Precinct Captain - Wall is a blink target, and support for W control. Captain - everyone said, what's this guy doing here, so out he goes.

I like almost all of that, although I think Victimize is pretty weak. I'd find room for Precinct Captain and Wall of Omens.

Cheers,
rant

Thanks for your thoughts! I'd like to add another reanimation spell and victimize was an option. Makeshift mannequin is an option also. Unburial rites is better than Dread Return for Gifts Ungiven purpose or self-mill, but I would have to consider that an Orzhov card.

I'm ok with chopping accorder paladin, Nearhearth Pilgrim or Lone missionary for Wall of Omens in order to keep Precinct Captain. What do you think?

I'd cut Pilgrim for sure.

Makeshift is pretty decent, but it's more of an extra-value card than a reanimator card. I like it more than Victimize in any case.

Cheers,
rant

Sounds good! I appreciate your suggestions. Nearhearth Pilgrim, I don't think I've ever seen it in play.

I've never played with victimize myself. Having to sacrifice a creature may not be a huge detriment for black with all the recursive creatures, and I like the idea of getting two guys for the price of one card and a randocreature. hm..


Edit:

Also going to swap
Probe - Glimpse the Unthinkable

Hey there. I also have an EDH cube -> link in sig. Some questions regarding how you use your cube.

Do you play with an increased deck size to mimic the large decks of constructed edh?

Do you play with 40 life rather than 20?

Do your games typically go past turn 10?

Do you play 1v1 or multiplayer?